DX LISTENING DIGEST 00-24, February 9, 2000
edited by Glenn Hauser
{Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only provided
full credit be maintained at all stages}
THIS WEEK ON WORLD OF RADIO 1023: See topic summary at
http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/wor1023.html
** ANGUILLA. Re: [SWL] 11775 2/6/00 Yes, it was all over the 25-meter
band last (Friday) night. I noticed it when I was listening to Radio
Australia on 11880. The splatter was coming from 11775. Must be a
transmitter problem. (J W Schermerhorn, location unknown, Feb 6,
swl@qth.net via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** AUSTRALIA. They're at it again! An item in RN's Media Network from
an Australian contributor advised that Radio Australia was testing on
21720 9850 and 9580 "during daylight hours" from Darwin. RA is not
conducting any form of on-air tests at all from Darwin!!! The
facility has regular operations into dummy antenna loads, which of
course are not on-air transmissions. This source is the same one
which incorrectly reported that Darwin had been reactivated some
months ago. I do suggest that this person would cease and desist from
letting loose these stupid and misleading conjectural statements
about Darwin - the facility is NOT operational, and any suggestions
that it is are without foundation. The facility is owned by the
Australian Government (not the ABC!) and at some stage in the distant
future it MAY be used on a leased basis by organisations meeting very
strict and rigid requirements for editorial content, including
RA/ABC. Necessary legislation to enable this to occur has not yet
been passed by the Australian Parliament. (Roberto Vincenzo Padula,
Electronic DX Press, Feb 8 via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** COLOMBIA. Clandestine, V. de la Resisencia, 6261.03, Feb 5 1205-
1233* Spanish talk by man and woman, LA music, very weak, occasional
RTTY QRM. Freq is slightly lower lately; was usually on around
6261.2. Also Jan 25 at 2215-2224* was on 6261.0; tune-in to Spanish
talk, LA music, ID, s/off with vocal anthem. Poor with occasional
RTTY QRM, and from unID Spanish station with weak, unstable, wobbly
carrier on 6261.75v with LA music, Spanish talk. This unID signed off
at approximately 2228 (Brian Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. It`s always something at RHC: tuned in for DXUL UT Sun Feb 6
at 0135 and heard 5 minutes of open carrier both on 9820 and 6000;
fortunately, DXUL did not start until 0143 (Glenn Hauser, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN [non]. Further to Wolfgang Bueschel's report on Iranian
jamming of VOA and RFE, the BBC Persian service is also being jammed.
To counteract this, the BBC has extended the 1615-1700 transmission
by 15 minutes on most frequencies and has added two extra channels -
9780 from Thailand and 5830 from Dushanbe. An "interesting" frequency
choice as 9780 is occupied by Yemen. It's a good thing that Israel
recently cancelled its planned move to 5830 (I note it's currently on
5825). Strange coincidence - last year, clandestine station Radio
Tomorrow's Iran was being heard on 5830 at 1700-1730, reportedly from
Tajikistan, i.e. the same frequency, time and site as the new BBC
broadcast to Iran. Should keep the conspiracy theorists in Tehran
happy. (Chris Greenway, England, Feb 7, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN. United Kingdom/USA/Iran: Interference to US and UK Persian
radio services: Since 1st February BBC Monitoring has received
reports of interference to Persian (Farsi) shortwave broadcasts by
USA and UK-based external radio services targeted mainly at listeners
in Iran. BBC Monitoring has confirmed the presence of new
interference to the following broadcasts: BBC Persian service: 0230-
0330 gmt on 5875 and 7165 kHz; 1615-1715 gmt on 17875 kHz. Voice of
America (VOA) Farsi service: 0300-0430 gmt on 6060 kHz; 1700-1900 gmt
on 6160 and 9680 kHz. Additionally during this transmission, the
Arabic Service of the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran (VIRI)
was heard on VOA's 11835 kHz. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
(RFE/RL) Farsi service: 0430-0730 gmt on 15290 kHz; 1500-1700 gmt on
6015 kHz and 15140 kHz. During this transmission the Arabic Service
of the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been heard on the
following RFE/RL frequencies: 9435, 11730 and 15410 kHz. At 1900-2000
gmt, 7280 kHz suffers interference. The Arabic Service of the Voice
of the Islamic Republic of Iran normally operates on two 13 MHz
frequencies at that time of day but neither was observed when checked
on 6th February. Besides co-channel Arabic audio observed to be that
of VIRI, the noises heard have taken the form of "bubble" type
interference of the sort used mainly in the Middle East to interfere
with shortwave transmissions. Source: Monitoring research in English
1-7 Feb 00 ((c) BBC Monitoring via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ISRAEL. If you read this month`s MT, you'll see that there was a
question regarding the naming of the Kol Israel international
service... well, I asked the question... and this is the answer that
I received... ISRAEL RADIO INTERNATIONAL The Israel Broadcasting
Authority (IBA) was created by the Broadcasting Law of 1965 to
operate public radio and TV services in the country - with the
exception of the Army Radio 'Galei Zahal' which is operated by the
Israel Defense Forces. The IBA comprises: Israel Television widely
known now as Channel One, and the radio services collectively called
Kol Israel which is Hebrew for Voice of Israel. In the mid 1980's
Victor Grajewski, the then Director of International Broadcasting
branded the service 'Israel Radio International'. However, in many of
the language sections there are long established titles that are in
use such as 'Israel Radio' in English and 'Radio Israel' in Persian.
(Daniel Rosenzweig, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA SOUTH. RKI Multiwave Feedback reported Feb 6 at 1137 via RCI
9650: major Y2K project is replacing two antennas more than 20 years
old with new ones at Kimjae. This news was mixed in with remarks
about their website which they would try better to keep updated and
with improved audio quality. William Matthews mentioned that he had a
hard drive crash in late December, lost everything, accounting for
lack of DX news for a few weeks (noted by Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** KURDISTAN. V. of the People of Kurdistan, 4062.43v, Jan 30 0410-
0420+, presumed; tune-in to talk in unID language, local music. From
4062.43 at 0410 drifted down to 4062.28 by 0420; fair (Brian
Alexander, PA, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KURDISTAN. 4060.47, CLANDESTINE, V. of People of Kurdistan in
Kurdish, 1/31, 1625-1630, M / talk, ID, music pause, talk, music.
Fair.
4084.99, CLANDESTINE, V. of Iraqi Kurdistan in Arabic, 1/31,
1631-1640, man mentioning Kurdistan, with music pauses, woman talk
mix with local music, M / ID at 1637 & talk. Fair (Giovanni Serra,
Roma, Italy, The Four Winds via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** LATIN AMERICA. I have changed Internetprovider and am now surfing
on broadband! :-) So from today youŽll find Eldorado for LA DX-ers at
http://members.chello.se/mwm/eldorado/index.html and on the site you
can find the names of 949 veriesigners, anniversaries of 875
radiostations and email-addresses to 577 radiostations (and links to
some of them). All of them are of course in Latinamerica!
I have also got a new email-address, and you can reach me at
mwm@chello.se perhaps with some contributions! :-)
73 (Nisse Jakobsson, Feb 7, hard-core-dx via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. XEOY / XEOI Radio Mil will re-broadcast a program produced
in Spain by the SER net. The program is called "Dial Latino" and will
air on Fridays from 0100 UTC (2000 local time) through both
transmitters: XEOY (1000 kHz) and XEOI (6010 kHz). This program will
consist of Latin American music that is currently popular on the
Spanish radio stations; so if you tune in you'll probably hear lots
of music from our Americas, with presenters talking with Spanish
accent, and perhaps an SER identification now and then. (Escoto-
Honduras, heard on XEOI, Jan 29). (Elmer David Escoto Romero, San
Pedro Sula, HONDURAS, Feb 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Do you mean it is
on UT Friday or UT Saturday?? So is 2000 local time on Thursday or
Friday? Also, Mexico is on UT minus 6, so if it is 2000 local time,
the UT would be 0200. If it is at 0100 UT, it would be at 1900 local
time (gh)
** NEW ZEALAND [non]. Hi, regarding the voice and Hellschreiber
transmissions on VLF during WW II: It would be interesting, which
transmitter was used for them. Nauen had just so-called
"Maschinensender", similar to the one at Grimeton/Sweden, which for
my best knowledge can just handle CW but no kind of any modulation.
The described transmissions would suit to another VLF transmitter,
called "Goliath". Just one point doesn't match: The inauguration of
the Goliath was mentioned as not earlier than spring 1943.
Nevertheless following some details about the Goliath, especially
because Hellschreiber mode was explicitly mentioned for it:
Goliath was located north-east from Kalbe (Milde), some 30 km east of
Stendal. The PA stage output was 1000 kW, feeding into a complex
antenna system, consisting on three hexagons, each of them mounted on
one 204 metres tall and six 171 metres tall masts. The frequency
range of Goliath was 15...60 kHz for CW, 30...60 kHz for
Hellschreiber and 45...60 kHz for low quality voice. Its main purpose
was, no surprise, to handle CW traffic for submarines, using 16.55
kHz as main frequency, but it was used also for commercial services;
a frequency change took less than five minutes. After the war Goliath
was dismantled until 1947 and transferred into the USSR, American
sources claim that he was reinstalled near Nizhny Novgorod, other
ones claim a site near Kharkov.
Speaking about German submarines in WW II, I just learned that a
single one of the common type "VII" ones was restored in Norway and
now anchors near Kiel, where one can visit it. Signs expressively
warns persons with agoraphobia etc. to not enter these swimming
coffin. Regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND [non]. One more thing in the Hellschreiber thread: I
have now listened to my tape of the RNZI Mailbox last week (fair
reception UT Thu 0205 on 17675) and it refers us to what turns out to
be the ``Fuzzy Modes`` website, most interesting at
http://www.qsl.net/zl1bpu (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Northern Province radio again off air for unpaid
bills: Text of report from the Papua New Guinea newspaper `The
National' web site on 7th February:
The National Broadcasting Corporation's Radio Northern in Popondetta
is off air due to non-payment of outstanding hills. Radio Northern
owes bills totalled about 4,000 kina since November last year which
the Oro [alternative name] provincial government was not able to pay.
Provincial radio stations are provincial functions under the reforms.
The problem has affected the majority of the rural people who depend
on the radio as a source of communication between the government and
the people. Radio Northern manager Mr Didimus Gerald said Radio
Northern has been on and off air too often because of non payment of
electricity, water and telephones bills. He said most teachers and
students from the districts were finding it difficult to get to town
to enquire for information relating to transfers, exam results and
related matters which in the past were broadcast on the radio. The
NBC Radio Northern suffered another setback recently when thieves
broke into the station and stole a lawnmower, a tape recorder,
headphones and several microphones. Mr Gerald said that since the
station function was transferred to the provincial government, there
were outstanding bills that the provincial government was unable to
settle on time. He appealed to the Oro provincial government to
assist as soon as possible. Mr Gerald said the NBC managing director
in Port Moresby, Boskky Tony [as published - various spellings given
in previous reports], has given approval for the station to close for
an indefinite period until its finances are sorted out. Source: `The
National' web site, Port Moresby, in English 7 Feb 00 (BBC Monitoring
via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** USA. In a Jan 25 telephone conversation, Dave Frantz of WGTG tells
us that by Jun 1 he expects to have new call letters and a shift in
focus of the station away from religious programs to programs of a
commercial nature (no specifics). Further, short-range engineering
plans call for five 100 kW SSB-capable transmitters and 8 antennas to
be in operation. He's also told us that he intends to be more pro-
active in keeping the program guide on the Web site
(http://www.wgtg.org) up to date. We shall see. (Tom Sundstrom, Jan
25, Electronic DX Press via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###